president obama is adamant about protecting existing income tax rates for middle income earners and raising them on the wealthy. for the president the politics of this is very simple. he he ran on that issue and against republican obstructionism and won. if republicans don't relent on his issue, other fiscal cliff matters won't be discussed in the president's campaign to end the stalemate will continue. -election pond time since winning re-election, president obama welcomed the applause of hand-picked supporters and wa his calls tolicans not to ignore is calls to protect middle class households. >> it's time for us to work on >> reportel agreed to, which is allow eep middle class tax cuts for >> tax cuts for households that earn more than $250,000 to in a expire. increase.complicity and tax rate theyease. sted.hey're not interested. >> you're not going to grow the ou raiseif you raise tax rates on the top two rates. smalll hurt small businesses. econill hurt our economy. approach.y this is not the right r: toach. anythis impasse is one of many geithnerreasury secretary tim geithner, mr. oba